Reliving those golden school days

Our Lady of Hungary Class of 1966 -- and other classes -- to reunite.

Our Lady of Hungary Class of 1966 -- and other classes -- to reunite.

July 14, 2006|JENNIFER OCHSTEIN Tribune Correspondent

From Thailand to New Jersey, the baby boomers who graduated in 1966 from Our Lady of Hungary School in South Bend will be converging at the school for the first time since they said goodbye to their eighth-grade year. While the Aug. 19 reunion is for classes that graduated from the school from 1955 to 1974, the members of the 1966 class haven't seen each other in 40 years, according to Tassie Jaques, who graduated from the school that year and is helping organize the reunion. Our Lady of Hungary school, 735 W. Calvert St., houses students in kindergarten through eighth grade. "We've been talking about having a grade-school reunion for 20 years," said Coleen Hoover, a classmate of Jaques who is also helping organize the event. Jaques said some of them finally decided last summer to put one together at their 35th high school reunion at Marian High School. She'd heard from an Our Lady of Hungary classmate, Zoli Pocza, who lives in Thailand. He told Jaques that if someone would organize it, he would come. "That inspired me," Jaques said, figuring that if he were willing to travel halfway around the world to come then others might be interested too. So, they started meeting at the German Club in South Bend and announcing a reunion. Soon, other classes asked if they could join, which is how the reunion has grown from about 40 from the class of 1966 to more than 300 people who have signed up to attend, Jaques said. "We've gotten an amazing response," said Hoover of the number of classmates willing to join them. And it's the common bonds of attending OLH school that is bringing them back together again. From watching coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination and being let out of school early that day, to suffering metal burns while sliding down the metal fire escape during fire drills, to remembering nuns coming at them with scissors to trim bangs that were too long -- the class of 1966 grew up together during a time that was still innocent, Jaques and Hoover agreed. And who could forget their music teacher slicking back his eyebrows with some spittle and his index finger, imploring the kids to, "Sing, sing!" "Growing up in the '50s and '60s was just the best," Jaques remembered. Hoover said she made connections with the kids at OLH that she never made anywhere else. "I don't really care about the high school reunions," she said, noting that many of those relationships are very superficial. "I made some special connections in grade school." And they're all hoping to renew those special connections as the only 43 people to have graduated from OLH in 1966.